In
pondering the Jewish question, I recall Fiddler on the Roof
in which Tevye poses a revealing, though tongue-in-cheek question: “I
know, I know,” he concedes. “We are Your chosen people.
But, once in a while, can't You choose someone else?” His is the
story of life in a small Russian shtetl, still under the Romanov
dynasty. At the time, anti-Jewish propaganda in Western Russia often
led to one pogrom after another; in the end, violence claimed the lives
of no less than 1,500 Jewish citizens.[1]

Atheists,
radical Muslims, and right wing, Christian fundamentalists qualify among
the world’s most hated; but Jews emerge as the most enduring,
universally hatred group in history.[2]
How ironic that many hate God Himself, who by His very nature loves
so much.[3]
A provocative Masterpiece movie, God on Trial (2008), addresses
Tevye’s quandary—this time, without a hint of humor. While
awaiting inevitable death at the Third Reich's most notorious death
camp, Auschwitz, a group of Jews form a rabbinical court and put God
on trial. In a universe presumably ruled by a benevolent, omnipotent
God, they question how the Holocaust could possibly happen unless God
is responsible for their suffering and therefore guilty of violating
His holy covenant.[4]

God’s
Continuing Plan for Israel

The
statesman Daniel knew better. His hope-filled, namesake book showcases
God’s faithfulness, past, present, and future. Through it, Daniel
references a complete history of Israel from Daniel’s time to
that of the Messiah. Moreover, he discloses Israel’s miraculous
restoration as a nation within a period of seventy weeks of seven years
each (a total of 490 years), starting with the commandment to restore
Jerusalem.[5]

Notably,
God’s promise to Abraham came with no expiration date. That the
last half of “the seventieth week” has yet to happen confirms
God’s continuing plan for Israel.[6]
God faithfully made of Abraham a great nation through which all families
worldwide would be blessed.[7]
For Christians, that blessing came as a babe in the manger. Others benefit
through the significant number of Jews whose extraordinary contributions
in literature, economics, physics, and medicine have won Nobel prizes.[8]

Left-Leaning
Friends Beget Left-Leaning Jews

Although
viewed with suspicion by many Jews, today’s Christian Right befriends
and defends Israel as few others have. Why, then, are so many Jews left-leaning?
Author Norman Podhoretz attempts to answer this perplexing question.[9]
For one, he suggests, Karl Marx mesmerized Jews. Das Kapital
became a new kind of Torah, representing secular Jewish Messiah-ism.
The Marxist Labor Movement promised to overturn capitalism, procure
higher wages, and improve work conditions for the vast majority of Jews
in America who, among others, were poor and powerless.

Next,
when French artillery officer Alfred Dreyfus, a Jew, was charged with
treason for having yielded military secrets to the Germans, fellow Jews
believed their only friends were on the Left. From its inception in
1894 until its resolution in 1906, the Dreyfus affair divided France.
Allegedly based on forged evidence, the Captain’s conviction ranks
among preeminent political dramas of modern French and European history.

Historically,
America’s Left has befriended Israel. Jews embraced America’s
32nd President, popularly known as FDR, as a sort of Moses and her 33rd
President Harry S. Truman as Father of the Jewish State. Although JFK
was considered cool toward Israel, Jews liked 36th President Lyndon
B. Johnson for completing Roosevelt’s New Deal. Our 39th President
Jimmy Carter negotiated peace talks and a treaty between Israel and
Egypt, but later became openly and virulently hostile to Israel. Recoiling
from Carter, Jews looked, albeit reluctantly, to our 40th President
Ronald Reagan. Despite Jews’ widespread fear of the Religious
Right, the President sympathized with Begin in implementing many bold
economic and foreign policies.

God’s
Answer to “Convenient Hatred”

Israel
means “to prevail with God” or “prince with God.”
“Israel” designates the son of Isaac (Jacob) or his descendants,
the twelve tribes of the Hebrews. It references the nation’s ten
northern tribes, as opposed to Judah. Over time, the term “Jew”
came to represent the entire Hebrew race worldwide.[10]

To
this day, many disdain all Jews as international world controllers who,
in practice, are not notably religious. Theorists hold that Jews unite
universally in a manned and moneyed, exclusive and clandestine cabal
ruthlessly devoted to world dominion. The long debunked, decidedly anti-Semitic
Protocols portray the Jew as “a Republican as against
the monarchy, a Socialist as against the republic, and a Bolshevist
as against Socialism.”[11]

An
emerging, one-world system engineered and propelled by the ruling elite
is evident. Certainly, Jews serve shadow government, but so do Gentile
counterparts. Be clear: The entire Hebrew race is not culpable. Of purest
Jewish blood, Paul explained: Not all who descended from Israel are
truly Israel.[12]
Biblical Christians embrace Abraham as the father of all who believe—Jews
first; then, Gentiles. Therefore, among those called and chosen of God
stand New Covenant, Spirit-led Christians—i.e., “spiritual
Israel.”[13]
Set apart unto God, these (the collective faithful) “touch not
the unclean thing.”[14]

•
Down, but not Out

In
the presence of, and for the benefit of, Abraham and his progeny, God
made a solemn, sacred blood covenant—with Himself.[15]
While Abraham literally slept, God alone traversed the blood-covered
trail between slaughtered animal sacrifices, thereby swearing to Himself
(sole, authoritative witness) to uphold His promises.[16]
No conditions whatsoever were imposed upon Abraham. Whatever Abraham
did, or failed to do, God swore (1) to multiply Abraham’s seed
as the stars of heaven and (2) to grant the land “from the river
of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates.”

Simply
put, God’s plan involves and even features Israel, distinguished
in Scripture as “center of the Earth.” Israel was foreordained
to “blossom as a rose”[17] —to
lend, not borrow; to reign, not be reigned over.[18]
Ezekiel described national Israel as “living securely” after
returning from many nations.[19] Yes, death intervened
before God’s promises to Abram were fulfilled but, by faith, he
saw them “afar off”; Abram firmly believed God would make
good His promises,even those not fulfilled in Old Testament times.[20]

•
Shaken, but Spared

The
Macca bean revolt, which crushed the Seleucids and Hellenism during
the 400-year silent period between Old- and New- Testaments, marked
the last establishment of a unified Jewish state prior to 1948. Prophetically,
the generation in which Israel is reestablished as a nation—specifically,
the “boomer” generation—will not pass away until all
of Christ’s Eschatological Discourse[21]
is fulfilled.[22]

Described
as “a cup of staggering” and “a burdensome stone”
to surrounding nations,[23] Israel has been, and
will be, shaken by what some authorities describe as three, all-out
nuclear exchanges;[24] but she will be spared
total annihilation.[25] Full appropriation of
Israel’s rightful God-given territory, extending from the Nile
to the Euphrates River, will be realized (likely in the Millennial Reign
of Christ).[26]

On
the other hand, to bless her is to be blessed of God through Israel.[30]
In the words of Gary Gilley: “A fair and balanced portrayal of
the Middle East will reveal that one nation stands far above the others
in its commitment to human rights and democracy as well as in its commitment
to peace and mutual security. That nation is Israel.”[31]
Should she abandon Israel, thereby leaving 0.02% of the world’s
population to stand alone against 20% of it hell-bent on “wiping
her off the face of the earth,” America stands to forfeit God’s
blessing; and her destiny as a “land of covenant” will be
fatally compromised.

Conclusion

Promise
comes with a price. Cradled in Orthodox Judaism, the apostle Paul suffered
a persistent “thorn in the flesh,” momentary blindness,
murderous fury of fellow Jews, threat of scourging, shipwreck, imprisonment,
even seasons of discouragement and obscurity. Ultimately, Paul was executed.[32]

Bottom
line: Whom the Lord loves, He chastens. As it was with Paul, so it is
with the faithful seed of Abraham. By blood covenant, God remains married
to national Israel, despite her infidelities.[33]
C.H. Spurgeon reminds us that “the stormy wind sweeps away the
pestilence, and the biting frost loosens the soil. Dark clouds distil
bright drops, and black earth grows gay flowers.”[34]
To suffer with (and for) our Lord is to be glorified with Him.[35]

In
the end, “The LORD will comfort Zion; He will comfort all her
waste places. And her wilderness He will make like Eden; her desert,
like the garden of the LORD. Joy and gladness will be found in her;
thanksgiving and sound of a melody.”[36]

Having authored
the ABCs
of Globalism and ABCs
of Cultural -Isms, Debra speaks to Christian and secular groups alike.
Her radio spots air globally. Presently, Debra co-hosts WOMANTalk
radio with Sharon Hughes & Friends and hosts TRUTHTalk
radio, plus she contributes monthly commentaries to a number of Internet
news magazines. Debra calls the Pacific Northwest home.